Topic: Live versus Recorded Versions
Many people remember singing "Kumbaya" in groups, either as a whole, where everyone sang every word in camps, or in audiences for performers who had them sing the refrain. Recordings of artists like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez do not capture this experience for technical or commercial reasons.
In amateur recordings there usually was only one microphone that was directed toward the stage. It simply couldn’t pick up background sounds. In commercial recordings, sound engineers and others involved in the postproduction of albums often eliminated the audience, if it had been picked up, because they were promoting the artist under contract.
A YouTube video of Spirituál Kvintet is the rare exception. The Czech group had been performing for years and apparently used "Kumbaya" to end its concerts. Few in their audiences were seeing them for the first time. They knew how the show should end, and they knew their part.
There were two versions on YouTube. The best has been blocked. In the 2013 concert in Košice, Slovakia, members of the group took turns singing the beginnings of the song’s lines, and pointed to the audience who responded with the "kumbaya" refrain. Toward the end, the men stopped playing their instruments and joined in an a capella verse, followed by the audience.
The authorized video, which comes complete with logos of their record company, was from a reunion concert. The same women sang the verses, but the assembled Kvintet members sang the "kumbaya" refrains. The camera looked at the same row in the audience twice; some were moving their mouths but could not be heard. On only one repetition was the audience heard.
Performers in Košice
Soloists: Zdena Tichotová, Veronika Soucková (both women)
Vocal Accompaniment: Jirí Tichota, Dušan Vancura, Jirí Cerha, and Jirí Holoubek (all men)
Instrumental Accompaniment: Jirí Holoubek, guitar; George Tichota, guitar; Paul Peroutka, bass (all men)
Blogger doesn't recognize all the letters in the names; my apologies for the substitutions of English equivalents in Jirí, Soucková, and Vancura for the C's and R's.
Lyrics
Language: it was not sung in English. Only the word "kumbaya" was understandable. It did not matter.
Pronunciation:
the audience emphasized the second syllable of "kumbaya."
Notes on Performers
Czech university students formed a male quartet in 1960, before the international phase of the commercial folk music revival. They began performing in 1962 at a jazz festival, then reformed themselves after they heard the Weavers by adding a woman. They have undergone changes in personnel caused first by emigrations, then by aging, and most recently by deaths.
Notes on Performance
Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia, and second largest in the country.
Availability
YouTube. 55 years anniversary set. Uploaded by Surpaphon, 23 March 2015.
YouTube. Concert in Košice. Upload information no longer available. The best example of a live performance.
